THE STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS EMPLOYER IMAGE BAROMETER 2018

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THE STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS EMPLOYER IMAGE BAROMETER

2018

Concerning SSE students’ interest in different employers, industries, countries, employment conditions and working in their own businesses.

By Professor Richard Wahlund for

Stockholm School of Economics’ Corporate Relations

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FOREWORD

The Stockholm School of Economics Employer Image Barometer, a project now in its 29^th year, was launched in 1990 with five different aims. The first two were purely academic, namely to develop a model showing what explain an employer’s attraction as such, and what employers should therefore focus on when they attempt to make themselves attractive as employers, and to develop a technique for testing that model for a large number of different employers at the same time.

These aims were fulfilled in earlier reports (e.g. Wahlund, 2002), but have since the 2007 survey been followed up with new questions about what make employers attractive to students. Many of these questions were changed again in last year’s survey, and some earlier questions were removed and some new added. Some new ones were added also this year. Thus, many analyses are also different in this report compared to most earlier reports.

The third aim is to produce results that can form a basis for employers’ marketing to, and recruitment of, graduates of the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). Hopefully these results will also make matters easier for students when they enter the labor market. The fourth aim concerns facilitating benchmarking, i.e. emphasizing the employers that have succeeded in making themselves most attractive among the students, so they can serve as examples for other employers.

The fifth aim is also primarily academic and has been to use the survey to now and then study specific topics of interest more deeply, such as students’ reactions to the ultimatum game (Wahlund, 1994), CSR issues (Wahlund, 2002), the interest in self-employment (Wahlund, 2010) or students’ views on gender equality (Wahlund, 2002; 2014). The ultimatum game was studied again in both last and in this year’s surveys but has not been reported yet.

The project has been implemented through close collaboration between the undersigned and SSE Corporate Relations, a collaboration that has been very stimulating and fruitful. I wish to thank SSE Corporate Relations for this positive collaboration and for financing the surveys.

Last but not least, I wish to thank all the students who agreed to take part in the survey. Without you, the SSE Employer Image Barometer would not have been meaningful, nor could it have been produced. Hopefully, the results will help improve recruitment conditions at SSE.

Stockholm, August 2018

Richard Wahlund

The Bonnier Family Professor in Business Administration, especially Media Stockholm School of Economics

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The survey has been carried out with two practical aims. The first is to produce results that can form a basis for employers’ marketing to and recruitment of graduates of SSE and make that marketing and recruitment effective and efficient, thus serving the interests of both the students and the employers. The second aim concerns facilitating benchmarking by emphasizing the employers that have succeeded in making themselves most attractive to the students.

The SSE Employer Image Barometer has also fulfilled three academic aims:

1. To develop a model showing the factors explaining an employer’s attraction as such, thus indicating what employers should focus on to make themselves attractive as employers, 2. to develop a technique for testing that model for a large number of companies at the same

time, and

3. to use the survey to now and then study specific topics of interest more deeply, such as students’ reactions to the ultimatum game (Wahlund, 1994, and also last year), CSR issues (Wahlund, 2002), the interest in self-employment (Wahlund, 2010) or students’ views on gender equality (Wahlund, 2002; 2014).

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The first two of the latter aims were fulfilled in earlier reports (e.g. Wahlund, 2002), but have since the 2007 survey been followed up with new questions on what makes employers attractive. As to the last aim, see the references mentioned above.

This year’s survey involves all students registered in an SSE study program in Sweden in late December 2017: the Bachelor of Science Program in Business and Economics (BaBE), the Bachelor of Science Program in Retail Management (BaRetail), the Master of Science Pro- grams in Economics, in Accounting and Financial Management (AccFin Man.), in Finance, in International Business (Intern. Busin.), and in Business and Management (Busin.) with its specializations in Marketing and Media Management or in Management (only second year).

The total population consisted of 2,007 active students at the time of the survey. Of these, 631 (31.4 percent) completed the internet-based questionnaire (see table 1 for response rates since 2003). The internal non-response is low. Still, only valid answers have been used in the analyses.

There were many questions, and the response rate was, as in earlier surveys, somewhat lower among the older students. The older students have experienced previous years’ surveys and may have experienced them as time-consuming and effortful and may think that they have already contributed enough by responding to earlier surveys.

In order to ensure that the results of the survey reflect the total student population at SSE, the population of respondents has been weighed to correspond to the percentages of the active students in the different programs within year of study. The distribution of respondents (see table 2) therefore reflects the distribution of SSE students in terms of programs and years. All respondents who completed the questionnaire were offered participation in a lottery where they could win a dinner for two, one of 40 movie tickets or a book.

Table 1. Total population and total response rate

Survey Population Response rate

year number

2018 2007 631 (31.4%) The complete questionnaire.

2015/2016 2254 692 (30.7%) The complete questionnaire.

2015/2016 2254 810 (39.9%) The questions on the most attractive employer.

2012 2085 927 (44.5%) Only the questions on the most attractive employer.

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Table 2. Percentages of active students and respondents in each program and class

Program, year Percentages

2018

Bachelor in Business and Economics, year 1 14.1%

Bachelor in Retail Management, year 1 3.1%

Master in Business & Management, year 1 3.7%

Master in Business & Management (including specialization in

Management and Marketing and Media Management), year 2 6.6%

Master in Accounting and Financial Management, year 1 2.8%

Master in Accounting and Financial Management, year 2 5.5%

Master in Finance, year 1 4.5%

Master in Finance, year 2 7.3%

Master in Economics, year 1 2.5%

Master in Economics, year 2 4.2%

Master in International Business, year 1 2.7%

Master in International Business, year 2 2.3%

1.1 Some frequent abbreviations and signs used throughout the report

The following abbreviations and signs are used throughout the report:

BaBE Program: Bachelor of Science Program in Business and Economics

Young BaBE students: The students in years one and two in the BaBE Program Old BaBE students: The students in year three or above in the BaBE Program

BaRetail Program: Bachelor of Science Program in Retail Management, with BaRetail students.

SASSE: The SSE Student Association

x

= mean (arithmetic average) M = median

s = standard deviation n = number of respondents

β = Beta coefficient in regression analysis (standardized regression coefficient) t, F, χ² and p = statistical test parameters

With “significant” always means “statistically significant” at stated significance level.

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2 THE SSE EMPLOYER INDEX

When it comes to attracting talented people, there are often substantially more employers com- peting than one might think, particularly as students are interested in jobs not only in Sweden but globally. In any event, students are faced with a wide range of options. In order to create a popularity index of different employers – The SSE Employer Index – without any limitations as to which employers are chosen, the students were asked the following open question:

“Which companies or organizations would you most of all like to work for? State the three companies that you would most of all like to work for, if these companies offered you a job that on the whole satisfies your wishes. (By "company" we mean all types of employers, i.e.

also government agencies, special interest organizations, NGO:s, institutions of various kinds etc.) Try to give complete names and to spell them correctly!”

The companies or organizations mentioned by each student are therefore the most attractive of all employers existing throughout the world to the SSE students. Considering the total number of possible employers globally, every vote means a feather in the mentioned employer’s cap.

Table 3 shows the 38 most popular employers in 2018 and their rankings from 2010 to 2018.

In total, more than 250 different employers were mentioned by the 631 students in this year’s SSE Employer Image Barometer.

This year, 38 employers have been listed as compared to 36 last year, since more than one employer at the bottom of the list have the same rank. The five most popular employers this year are the same as last year, but their popularity and ranking have changed. The ranking in 2018 is (last year’s rank in brackets):

1. McKinsey & Company (1), one of SSE’s Corporate Partners, placed on top of the students’

ranking for the eighteenth consecutive year, this year with 26 percent of the votes. Between 2004 and 2009, it almost doubled its popularity to 31 percent of the votes. McKinsey was also in first place in 1995 and 1996. Since 2012, McKinsey & Company’s first place has been challenged by other employers, gaining at the cost of McKinsey & Company’s relative attractiveness. These employers have possibly learnt from McKinsey & Company’s (and other employers at the top of the list) attractive offers and successful marketing to the SSE students. Still, McKinsey made quite a leap this year, regaining a substantial ‘market share’

in attractiveness, from 20 percent last year to 26 percent of the votes this year.

2. Boston Consulting Group – BCG (2), an SSE Corporate Partner, kept the second place from last year with 19 percent (18 percent last year). BCG was in third place 2016 with 15 percent.

Before that BCG had been second for eleven years in a row. BCG was also in second place from 1999 to 2001 and in first place from 1996 to 1998. From 2008 to 2014 its popularity fluctuated between 21 percent in 2014 and 26 percent in 2008.

3. Google (4) was on the list for the first time in 2007 with three percent and then climbed on the list steadily, reaching 17 percent and second place in 2015/2016, then dropping to fourth place last year with 12 percent. Google thus regained quite a lot popularity this year.

4. Goldman Sachs (5), an SSE Corporate Partner, kept the percentage from last year – 11 percent – but gained one rank. Since 2011, its popularity has fluctuated somewhat between 10 (in 2014 and 2012) and 13 percent (in 2011).

5. Bain & Company (3), an SSE Corporate Partner, ended up in fifth place this year with 11 percent. From 2007, its popularity has fluctuated between eight percent in 2008 and 13 percent in 2007 and 2012.

6. Spotify (7) kept the percentage from last year with nine percent but gained one rank. It has steadily increased its popularity since 2011, then not ranked.

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7. H&M (6), an SSE Corporate Partner, placed seventh this year with eight percent, dropping from 10 percent last year. From 2008 to 2017 H&M’s popularity was rather stable, fluctuating between 10 percent (in 2017 and 2008) and 13 percent (in 2015/2016, 2013 and 2012).

Before then, from 2004 to 2007, it was rather stable between seven and nine percent.

8. Of the 28 employers on the list with at least 2 percent of the votes this year, four are new on the list (rank within brackets): Klarna (14; also on the list in 2015/16), Amazon (21), Face- book (23; also on the list in 2015/16 and 2010)) and Kinnevik (23).

9. This year, no students stated their own business as the most attractive ‘employer’ (11 students last year). As to the interest in self-employment, see Chapter 8 for further analyses.

See Chapter 6 for expected salaries at the most popular employers.

2.1 Employer popularity over time

Figure 1 below shows the development of the popularity of the twelve most attractive employers this year, from 1998 until now. Some trends are:

1. McKinsey and BCG have followed each other’s popularity quite well over the years, fluctuating quite a lot but still leading. Bain’s popularity has been quite stable over the last decade at around 10 percent.

2. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley had both an increasing trend until 2007 and have since then a decreasing trend, as have public institutions or politics since 2003.

3. H&M and Google had a steady, rapid and notable increase until 2015/16, then falling somewhat. Spotify may be the primary employer challenging them, and perhaps following their popularity development.

4. Investor and SEB has slowly gained popularity in the last decade.

Figure 1. The development over time in attractiveness of the nine most popular employers 0

5 10 15 20 25 30 35

McKinsey BCG Google

H&M Goldman Sachs Bain

Spotify Public institutions Morgan Stanley

EQT Investor SEB

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Table 3. The SSE Employer Index 2010–2018: The 38 most attractive employers in 2018

2018 2017 2015/2016 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

Employer Rank Percent Number Rank Percent Rank Percent Rank Percent Rank Percent Rank Percent Rank Percent Rank Percent

McKinsey & Company 1 26.3% 164 1 20.3% 1 23.5% 1 26.2% 1 28.0% 1 29.6% 1 26.7% 1 28.0%

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 2 18.6% 117 2 17.5% 3 14.7% 2 20.9% 2 22.1% 2 25.3% 2 21.6% 2 24.0%

Google 3 16.1% 102 4 12.3% 2 17.3% 3 15.7% 3 14.1% 5 11.2% 5 11.0% 6 10.8%

Goldman Sachs 4 11.0% 70 5 10.6% 5 12.5% 6 9.6% 5 10.6% 6 10.4% 3 12.8% 3 15.2%

Bain & Company 5 10.8% 68 3 12.4% 6 9.9% 5 10.7% 6 10.1% 3 12.8% 6 9.8% 4 12.0%

Spotify 6 9.0% 57 7 8.6% 7 7.8% 9 6.1% 13 3.9% 16 2.6% (n.r.) (n.r.)

H&M 7 8.3% 52 6 9.5% 4 13.3% 4 11.7% 4 12.9% 3 12.8% 4 11.2% 5 10.9%

EQT 8 6.0% 38 14 4.1% 11 4.3% 29 1.4% (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.)

Public institutions or politics: ministries, 9 5.7% 36 8 5.8% 8 6.7% 7 7.5% 7 7.8% 7 8.0% 7 8.4% 7 8.2%

governmental institutions etc.

Investor 10 4.6% 29 13 4.4% 19 2.5% 23 2.0% 22 2.2% (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.)

SEB 11 4.4% 27 10 5.2% 11 4.3% 13 3.5% 14 3.9% 20 2.5% 13 3.7% 16 2.8%

Morgan Stanley 11 4.4% 27 9 5.6% 9 5.2% 10 4.7% 9 6.0% 9 4.8% 9 6.6% 9 6.5%

JP Morgan 13 3.9% 24 12 4.7% 13 3.9% 11 3.9% 11 4.6% 16 2.6% 11 4.2% 14 3.7%

Axel Johnson 14 3.4% 21 15 4.0% 18 2.6% (n.r.) (n.r.) 29 2.0% (n.r.) (n.r.)

Klarna 14 3.4% 21 (n.r.) 29 1.7% (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.)

United Nations institutions 16 3.4% 21 17 2.9% 9 5.2% 8 6.7% 8 7.1% 8 7.2% 8 7.3% 8 7.7%

Nordea 17 3.2% 20 18 2.7% (n.r.) (n.r.) 33 1.6% (n.r.) 22 2.4% (n.r.)

Sveriges Riksbank 18 2.7% 17 18 2.7% 14 3.3% 26 1.6% 18 2.9% 24 2.3% (n.r.) 19 2.4%

EF Education First 19 2.5% 16 16 3.5% (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.)

IKEA 20 2.3% 15 24 2.0% 15 3.2% 16 2.6% 15 3.3% 15 2.7% 14 3.4% 11 4.6%

Amazon 21 2.3% 15 (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.)

L’Oréal 21 2.3% 15 36 1.5% (n.r.) (n.r.) 19 2.6% 22 2.4% 21 2.6% 15 3.4%

Tesla 23 2.1% 13 20 2.5% (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.)

Blackstone 23 2.1% 13 26 1.8% 19 2.5% 17 2.3% (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.)

Ernst & Young 23 2.1% 13 11 4.9% 17 2.7% 15 2.8% 12 4.5% 12 3.2% 12 4.1% 23 2.1%

Procter & Gamble 23 2.1% 13 31 1.6% 19 2.5% 12 3.8% 10 4.8% 10 4.3% 9 6.6% 10 6.1%

Facebook 23 2.1% 13 (n.r.) 24 2.1% (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) 23 2.1%

Kinnevik 23 2.1% 13 (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.) (n.r.)

Cevian, KPMG and QVARTZ 29 1.8% 11 – – – – – – –

ICA, Accenture, Apple, Navigio, World-

bank, Deloitte and Handelsbanken 32 1.6% 10 – – – – – – –

Number of respondents 631 723 810 608 697 927 761 713

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2.2 Employer popularity by gender

As last year, the attractiveness of different employers have been analyzed also for female and male students, respectively. The results are shown in figures 2 and 3. There are quite big differences as to the attractiveness of different employers between female and male students.

Figure 2, in which the employers are ranked by the interest among female students, shows that female students are more interested than male students in H&M (17.7 vs. 1.5 percent¹), Axel Johnson (6.7 vs. 0.9), L’Oréal (5.5 vs. 0), Spotify (11.8 vs. 7.0), Navigio (3.8 vs. 0), UN institutions (5.0 vs. 2.0), Google (17.3 vs. 15.3), Klarna (4.5 vs. 2.5), IKEA (4.0 vs. 1.2), Procter &

Gamble (4.0 vs. 0.6), EF Education First (3.6 vs. 1.7), Unilever (2.8 vs. 0.5), Deloitte (2.7 vs.

0.8) and LVMH (2.5 vs. 0.3).

Figure 2 also shows that female students are less interested than male students in McKinsey &

Company (19.5 vs. 30.8), BCG (12.6 vs. 22.9), Bain & Company (8.6 vs. 12.4), Goldman Sachs (4.6 vs. 15.6), EQT (2.7 vs. 8.3), SEB (2.9 vs. 5.5) and JP Morgan (2.1 vs. 5.1).

Figure 3, where the employers are ranked by the interest among male students, shows that male students are more interested than female students in McKinsey & Company (30.8 vs.19.5²), Goldman Sachs (15.6 vs. 4.6), BCG (22.9 vs. 12.6), Bain & Company (12.4 vs. 8.6), EQT (8.3 vs. 2.7), Morgan Stanley (6.4 vs. 1.4), SEB (5.5 vs. 2.9), JP Morgan (5.1 vs. 2.1), Nordea (4.8 vs. 0.9), Sveriges Riksbank (3.5 vs. 1.6), Cevian (3.2 vs. 0), Blackstone (3.0 vs. 0.9) and Han- delsbanken ( 2.4 vs. 0.4).

Figure 3 also shows that male students are less interested than female students in Spotify (7.0 vs. 11.8), Google (15.3 vs. 17.3), Klarna (2.5 vs. 4.5) and EF Education First (1.7 vs. 3.6).

Some general observations are:

1. Female students are more – in some cases much more – interested than male students in employers within retailing (including digital selling of products and services), consumer goods, service industry (including digital platforms) and international policy (UN institutions).

2. Male students are more – in some cases much more – interested than female students in management consulting firms and employers within finance.

3. The findings mentioned above indicate rather traditional gender differences as to the attractiveness of employers in different industries. The interest in such industrial activities must thus be taken into account if an employer strives for a more balanced gender distribution.

See also Chapters 3 about preferences for specified industries.

4. Still another general observation is that female students are more diverse in their preferences than male students, i.e. while many male students choose a few employers, female students choose a larger number of different employers.

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Figure 2. The ranking of the 32 most popular employers among female students in 2018 (percentages for female and male students, respectively).

2,1 2,1 2,1 2,1 2,2 2,3 2,3 2,4 2,5 2,5 2,7 2,7 2,8 2,9 2,9 3,6

3,8 4 4

4,3 4,5 4,6 5

5,5 5,6

6,7 8,6

11,8 12,6

17,3 17,7

19,5

5,1 0,4

2,1 0,8

1,9 0,6

1,1 1,3 0,9 0,3

0,8

8,3 0,5

5,5 1,9 1,7 0

0,6 1,2

4,8 2,5

15,6 2

0

5,7 0,9

12,4 7

22,9 15,3

1,5

30,8

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

JP Morgan Swedish Match Ernst & Young Citigroup Kinnevik Ericsson ICA Qvartz World Bank LVMH Deloitte EQT Unilever SEB Amazon EF Education First Navigio Procter & Gamble IKEA Investor Klarna Goldman Sachs UN institutions L'Oréal Public institutions Axel Johnson Bain & Company Spotify Boston Consulting Group Google H&M McKinsey & Company

Males Females

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Figure 3. The ranking of the 32 most popular employers among male students in 2018 (percentages for female and male students, respectively).

0 0,5

3,6 0,4

1,3 0

2,2 2,9 2 1,6

2,1 1,8 1,5 0,4

4,5 0,9 0

0,7 1,6 0,9

4,3 2,1

2,9 5,6 1,5

11,8 2,7

8,6

17,3 4,6

12,6

19,5

1,5 1,5 1,7 1,7 1,8 1,3

1,9 1,9 2 2 2,1 2,2 2,3 2,4 2,5 3

3,2 3,2 3,5

4,8 4,8 5,1

5,5 5,7 6,4

7 8,3

12,4 15,3

15,6

22,9

30,8

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Finansinspektionen Danske Bank EF Education First Norrsken Foundation Apple Nordic Capital Kinnevik Amazon UN Institutions KPMG Ernst & Young Facebook Volvo Handelsbanken Klarna Blackstone

Cevian Tesla Sveriges Riksbank Nordea Investor JP Morgan SEB Public institutions Morgan Stanley Spotify EQT Bain & Company Google Goldman Sachs Boston Consulting Group McKinsey & Company

Males Females

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2.3 Employer popularity by study program

As last year, the attractiveness of different employers has also been analyzed for the different study programs, respectively. The results are shown in figures 4–11. There are quite big differences as to the attractiveness of different employers also between the study programs. The main results are:

1. Of the four most popular employers among the young BaBE students, two are management consulting companies, McKinsey (1^st) and BCG (4^th), the other two being Goldman Sachs (2^nd) and Google (3^rd), followed by public institutions or politics, Bain, EQT, Morgan Stan- ley, JP Morgan, H&M, SEB, UN institutions, EF Education First, Spotify and Blackstone.

Thus, the most attractive employers among the young BaBE students come from a number of different industries such as management consulting, finance, public institutions, internet platforms, services and retailing.

2. The most popular employers among the old BaBE students are McKinsey and BCG, followed by Google, Spotify, H&M, Bain, Investor, EQT, Goldman Sachs, SEB, Klarna, UN institutions, public institutions, Sveriges Riksbank and Kinnevik. Thus, also among these students the most popular employers come from a number of different industries.

3. There are both similarities and differences as to the interest in different employers being on the lists of young and old BaBE students. The similarities indicate that the employers have succeeded to establish their popularity early in the students’ studies and kept that attractiveness.

If more attractive among the young than the old BaBE students, the employer has either been more successful lately in their activities towards the students than earlier, or simply gained more recent general attractiveness. If less attractive among the young than the old BaBE students, the employer has either been less successful lately in the competition with other employers, or been more unfortunate as to the development in general interest in the employer or in the industry of the employer.

4. The following employers are more popular among both young and old BaBE students than BaRetail students: McKinsey, BCG, Goldman Sachs, Google, Bain, EQT, UN institutions, SEB and Sveriges Riksbank.

5. The most popular employers among the BaRetail students are Axel Johnsson and H&M, two employers within retailing, followed by McKinsey, Google, IKEA, Swedish Match, Tesla, ICA, Spotify, Accenture, Coop, public institutions, BCG, Bain and LVMH, thus primarily employers within retailing consumer product or services related industries, but not exclusively.

6. The interest is higher among the BaRetail students than among both young and old BaBE students for the following employers: Axel Johnsson, H&M, IKEA, Swedish Match, Tesla, ICA, Accenture, Coop and LVMH, i.e. primarily retailing or consumer products or services companies, which is in line with the focus of the BaRetail program.

There are quite big differences between the different Master programs as to most popular employers, which is quite natural due to their different focuses. The attractiveness of employers among the Master students has therefore been analyzed per Master program. The main findings as to most attractive employers for the different Master students are the following:

7. The most attractive employers among the students in the International Business Master program (IntBusiness) are BCG and Google, followed by McKinsey, Spotify, L’Oréal, Amazon, Salesforce, H&M, Procter & Gamble, Facebook, Roland Berger, Tesla, Bain and UN institutions, i.e. also here employers from different industries such as management

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consultancy, service providers concerning internet or retailing, consumer products and the UN.

8. The following employers are more popular among the International Business students than among all other Master students: L’Oréal, Amazon, Salesforce, H&M, Procter & Gamble, Facebook, Roland Berger and Tesla.

9. The most attractive employers among the Master in Business Management (BusinessMan) students are Google and Spotify, followed by the three management consultant firms BCG, McKinsey and Bain, in turned followed by L’Oréal, Axel Johnsson, H&M, Volvo, Procter

& Gamble, IKEA, Facebook, Influence and Unilever, all related to the management consultancy industry, retailing or consumer products or service, including digital such.

10. The following employers are more popular among the Business Management students than among all other Master students: Google, Spotify, Axel Johnsson, Volvo, IKEA, Influence and Unilever.

11. The most attractive employers among the students in the Accounting and Financial Manage- ment Master program (MAccFin) are the three management consulting firms McKinsey, BCG and Bain, followed by EQT, Goldman Sachs, Kinnevik, Spotify, Investor, Google, Cevian, QVARTZ, Morgan Stanley, Norrsken Foundation and Nordea, i.e. primarily employers within the finance industry, not one employer within accounting or auditing.

12. The following employers are more popular among the Accounting and Financial Manage- ment students than among all other Master students: McKinsey, BCG, EQT, Kinnevik, Cevian, QVARTZ and Norrsken Foundation.

13. The most attractive employer among the Finance Master students are again the three management consulting firms McKinsey, BCG and Bain, followed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Nordea, Investor, Blackstone, JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, Spotify, EQT, Google and SEB, most of which are within the finance industry, but not all.

14. The following employers are more popular among the Finance Master students than among all other Master students: Bain, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Nordea, JP Morgan, Ernst

& Young and SEB, most of which are within the finance industry.

15. The Master in Economics students differ the most from the other Master students, and with less dominating employers. Most popular employers are public institutions, McKinsey, Sveriges Riksbank, BCG, OECD, Google, World Bank, ECB, DICE, UN institutions, QVARTZ, SSE, Goldman Sachs and IMF, i.e. mostly public institutions relying on economic analyses, or management consultancy firms, but not exclusively. All of these employers are more popular among the Economics students than among all other Master students except McKinsey, BCG, Google and Goldman Sachs.

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Figure 4. The ranking of the 15 most popular employers among young BaBE students (percentages for young and old BaBE, BaRetail and Master students, respectively).

2,3

10,4 0,8

2,4 2,2

3,8 2,9

4 4,3

13,2 3,8

20,7 13,2

7,6

26,1

2,1

7,3 3,3 0

4

22,9 2,1

4,1 0

4,8 5,1 4,8

11,7 3,6

13,4

0

14,1 3,2

5 6,4

12,3 2,7

1,8

10,9 12,2 4,5

19 16,8 6,8

25,3

3,5 3,9

4,2 4,5

6,3 6,7 6,8 6,9 7,3

8,4 9,7

20,2 21,8

22,2

31,2

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Blackstone Spotify EF Education First UN institutions SEB H&M JP Morgan Morgan Stanley EQT Bain & Company Public institutions Boston Consulting Group Google Goldman Sachs McKinsey & Company

Young BaBE Old BaBE BaRetail Master

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Figure 5. The ranking of the 15 most popular employers among old BaBE students (per- centages for young and old BaBE, BaRetail and Master students, respectively).

2,1 2,9

3,8 2,4

2,6 2,2

7,6 4,3 3,8

13,2 3,8

10,4 13,2

20,7

26,1

1,5 0

5,1 0

3,3 4 3,6 0

3 4,8

22,9 7,3

11,7 4,8

13,4

4,1 4,5 4,5 5

5,5 6,4

6,8

10,9 11,7

12,2 12,3

14,1 16,8

19

25,3

0,6 2

9,7 4,5

2,7 6,3

22,2 7,3

1,2

8,4 6,7 3,9

21,8 20,2

31,2

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Kinnevik Sveriges Riksbank Public institutions UN institutions Klarna SEB Goldman Sachs EQT Investor Bain & Company H&M Spotify Google Boston Consulting Group McKinsey & Company

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Figure 6. The ranking of the 15 most popular employers among BaRetail students (per- centages for young and old BaBE, BaRetail and Master students, respectively).

0,5

13,2

20,7 3,8

0 1,3

10,4 0,7

1,8 0,4

2,1

13,2

26,1 3,8

1,9

4,8 4,8 4,8 5,1

5,6 7

7,3 8,1 8,1

9,2 9,2

11,7 13,4

22,9 23,3

1,8

12,2

19 4,5

0 0

14,1 0

0 0 0

16,8

25,3 12,3

0

0,7

8,4

20,2 9,7

0 1,2

3,9 1,9 1,9 0

1,9

21,8

31,2 6,7

0,6

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

LVMH Bain & Company Boston Consulting Group Public institutions Coop Accenture Spotify ICA Tesla Swedish Match IKEA Google McKinsey & Company H&M Axel Johnsson

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Figure 7. The ranking of the 14 most popular employers among the students in the Master 9

3,5 0 0

1,8 0

2,3 0 0 0

4

14,3 12

13,3

0

18,7 0

1,1 0 0 0 0

4,6 0

5,8

34,3 5,3

19,7

1,1

16,8 1,1

0 0 0

5,2 0

0 0

9,6

42,3 7,1

29

0

13,7 3,5

1,8 5,2 5,4 6,1 3,4

4,3 7,8

18,4 16,3

23,5 18,1

6,4 6,4 6,4 8 8 8 8

8,3 10,1

11,7 14,7

15,4

22,4 24,3

0 10 20 30 40 50

UN institutions Bain & Company Tesla Roland Berger Facebook Procter & Gamble H&M Salesforce Amazon L'Oréal Spotify McKinsey & Company Google Boston Consulting Group

IntBusiness BusinessMan MAccFin Finance Economics

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Figure 8. The ranking of the 14 most popular employers among the students in the Master program in Business & Management, including specializations in Marketing and Media Management, and Management (percentages for each Master program, respectively).

0 0

1,8 2,3 0

2,3 2,3 0 0

3,5

14,3 13,3 4

12

0 0 0 0 0

2,7 0 0 0

18,7

34,3 19,7

5,8 5,3

0 0 0 0 0

1,9 5,2 0

0

16,8

42,3 29

9,6 7,1

4,4 5,2 5,2 5,4 5,4 5,5 6,1

6,8 7,8

13,7 16,3

18,1 18,4

23,5

4 1,9

8 4

8 0

8 1,9

11,7 6,4

15,4

24,3 14,7

22,4

0 10 20 30 40 50

Unilever Influence Facebook IKEA Procter & Gamble Volvo H&M Axel Johnsson L'Oréal Bain & Company McKinsey & Company Boston Consulting Group Spotify Google

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Figure 9. The ranking of the 14 most popular employers among the students in the Master 0

0 0

6,7 0

12 0

4 0

4,5 0

3,5

13,3 14,3

8,4 0

10 0

0

5,3 8 5,8 0

17,3 5,3

18,7 19,7

34,3

5,7 5,7 6 6

6,8 7,1 8,2

9,6 10,5 10,5 11,6

16,8

29

42,3

1,7 3,4 0

1,7 0

23,5 0

18,4 0

0 0

13,7 18,1 16,3

1,9 0 0

1,9 0

22,4 0

14,7 0

0 4

6,4

24,3 15,4

0 10 20 30 40 50

Nordea Norrsken Foundation Morgan Stanley

QVARTZ Cevian Google Investor Spotify Kinnevik Goldman Sachs EQT Bain & Company Boston Consulting Group McKinsey & Company

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Figure 10. The ranking of the 14 most popular employers among the students in the Master program in Finance (percentages for each Master program, respectively).

0

12 0

4 2,3 0

2,3 0 0 0

4,5 3,5

13,3 14,3

5,3 5,3 5,3 5,8

6,2 6,9 6,9 8

8,4 10

17,3 18,7

19,7

34,3

3,8 7,1

11,6 9,6 4,4 3 0

8,2 5,7

6

10,5

16,8

29

42,9

0

23,5 0

18,4 0

1,7 0 0

13,7 18,1 16,3

0

22,4 4

14,7 0

0 0 0

1,9 0 0

6,4

24,3 15,4

0 10 20 30 40 50

SEB Google EQT Spotify Ernst & Young JP Morgan Blackstone Investor Nordea Morgan Stanley Goldman Sachs Bain & Company Boston Consulting Group McKinsey & Company

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Figure 11. The ranking of the 14 most popular employers among the students in the Master program in Economics (percentages for each Master program, respectively).

4,5 4,5

6,3 6,7

9 9,8

10,8 11,6

12 12

13,3 14,3 14,3

16,1

0

17,3 0

0 0 0 0

1,1 5,3 0

19,7 1,5

34,3 1,5

0

10,5 1,9

6 1,1 0 0

1,9 7,1 0

29 1,1

42,9 1,9

0 0 0

1,7 0

4,3 0

1,7

23,5 0

18,1 0

16,3 1,7

0 0 0

1,9 6,4 0

0 0

22,4 0

24,3 0

15,4 0

0 10 20 30 40 50

IMF Goldman Sachs SSE QVARTZ UN institutions DICE ECB World bank Google OECD Boston Consulting Group Sveriges Riksbank McKinsey & Company Public institutions

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2.4 Increase or decrease in individualism when choosing an attractive employer?

For a number of decades, society has experienced a considerable increase in the range of offers and therefore greater freedom of choice, not only on local markets but also due to digitalization, globalization of markets and increased international trade. At the same time, awareness of brand equity and building of strong brands have increased considerably. For these reasons, it is of interest to ask whether there is any general trend as far as the most popular employers are con- cerned, i.e. whether students choose more independently (make use of the greater freedom of choice), or whether many students continue to show clear interest in a small number of employers, i.e. companies with strong brands as employers.

Figure 12 shows the percentages of the students stating the two, five and ten most attractive employers in 1998–2018. The main findings are:

1. For most of the period, the two most popular employers have attracted between 40 and 60 percent of the students, the five most popular employers 65–90 percent and the ten most popular employers 100–130 percent (each student could mention three companies and it is therefore possible for the total to exceed 100 percent). This indicates that employer brands play a rather important role in attracting students for employment.

2. During the period 2001–2006 there was a dip in the concentration of employers, but those with strong employer brands then regained their attractiveness. Since 2010, however, there has been a tendency towards lesser focus on a few employers, but that trend was broken this year, primarily due to the increased attractiveness of McKinsey, BCG and Google.

3. Although a number of employers have succeeded in creating very strong employer brands, attracting many students, it should be pointed out that new or earlier less attractive employers are challenging the traditional ones, e.g. Google which has moved from not being on the list in 2006 to third place this year with 16 percent of the votes.

4. Figure 12 also shows that it is the two most attractive employers that primarily determine how things develop in general, which supports the above interpretation that the determining factor is primarily the employers’ marketing – brand building – to the students.

Figure 12. The percentages of votes received by the two, five and ten most attractive employers 1998–2018.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Top two Top five Top ten

THE STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS EMPLOYER IMAGE BAROMETER 2018

Contents

1 THE SSE EMPLOYER IMAGE BAROMETER 2018

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